ACADEMIC WRITING & THE WRITING PROCESS

• What is your definition of ‘writing’?

• Here’s another question…

– What makes writing ‘good’?

• Writing is…

– A response

– Linear

– Ongoing/Changes

– Decision Making

– A Process

WHAT IS WRITING?

• In high school…

– You write what you know

• In college…

– You write to find out what you don’t know.

HOW DO I WRITE FOR COLLEGE?

• The Title

• Preliminary Remarks

• Audience & Purpose

• The Thesis

• The Introduction

• The Body

• The Conclusion

• The Postscript

ELEMENTS OF AN ESSAY

• Choose a topic.

• Focus your topic.

• Collect your ideas.

• Organize your ideas.

• Write them down onto paper.

• Revise!!!!!

• Turn it in on time.

• Congratulate yourself.

WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS: AN OVERVIEW

THE WRITING PROCESS

• Finding out what you already know, think, or how you feel about your chosen topic.

• You may want to do some research to find out more, or solidify facts and figures.

• Strategies: Brainstorming (Clustering, Listing); Freewriting; Outlining

PREWRITING

• Think of an assignment as a problem to be solved. Write it out in a single sentence.

• Stop trying. Take a break. Come back refreshed.

• Free write, brainstorm, outline

• Research what others have said

WRITER’S BLOCK

• Don’t wait until the last minute!

• Establish a schedule that works for you

• Break down your writing task

• Expect surprises

• Expect to do more than one draft

• Strategies: Taking Notes; Expanding on an Outline; Writing paragraphs

DRAFTING

• When writing for yourself – don’t worry

• Personal writing = length

• When writing for others…

– Make sure your points come across clearly

– What needs work? What still needs work? What do you need to say more (or less) of?

ASSESSING YOUR OWN WRITING

• Purpose

– Why you are writing

• Audience

– Who you are writing to/for

• Genre

– What type of writing are you doing?

• Stance

– How do you feel about the topic?

CONSIDER THE RHETORICAL SITUATION

• Focus

– Thesis

– Introduction & Conclusion

• Support

– Reasons, Evidence

• Organization

• Clarity

REVIEWING YOUR WRITING

• Others can point out problems that you do not see in your own text

• Answer specific questions you may have about the audience of your text

GETTING RESPONSES

• Major changes to the essay

• Layered

– Whole-Text

– Details

• Give yourself time to revise

• Sharpen your focus

• Strengthen the argument

• Clarify

• Rewriting – pg. 239

REVISING

• Details

– Paragraphs, Sentences, etc.

• Paragraphs

• Sentences

• Words

EDITING

• Clean up your work for presentation

• Spell check

• Formatting

PROOFREADING

JUST A REMINDER…

Plagiarize and die!

…just kidding. (No, really.)